Photo by Intrepid/Nats.Talk
How many times can you get punched in the gut as a Washington Nationals fan? Exactly five years ago at the 2021 trade deadline and two glorious calendar years after the World Series win, the Nats went into rebuild mode. A much-needed rebuild, but a rebuild that stalled and failed as of last year none-the-less. A rebuild of the failed rebuild had to be restarted by a new President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, who was hired about nine months ago.
Most of the positive results of this rebuild were dramatic based on mostly using analytics, technology and great coaching to get more out of the players, and find that extra gear. And that is what Toboni and manager Blake Butera both promised at their hirings. The organization spent millions on this endeavor.
“Talking to [players] in the offseason, the common theme was, ‘We need to get better; we’re not finished products.’ They all feel like there’s another gear they can get to and that they haven’t even scratched the surface of what they’re capable of doing. It’s our job as a staff to help them become the best versions of themselves; that’s the culture we’re building.”
— Butera said after he was hired
That quote from Butera came to life. In the process of a top-to-bottom overhaul, Toboni got rid of every member of last year’s MLB coaching staff except for two people, Assistant Pitching Coach, Sean Doolittle, and first base coach, Gerardo Parra, was re-assigned to a player development role. Most of the minor league coaches were gone. Most of the previous front office employees were given pink slips. Through the carnage, there were some good employees who lost their jobs. But Toboni was working against a clock to get this right the first time and those endeavors are never perfect.
In fact, if you look at the starting lineup on Saturday, 11 players had an at-bat in that game and each of them were from last year’s roster. Same names — different players. All but one player, Daylen Lile, has improved year-over-year. By the way, Lile’s in another hot streak, so who knows, he might finish at or exceed his 2025 numbers.
These coaching improvements are why the Washington Nationals have the top offense in baseball. They aren’t perfect as they certainly make mistakes — but Butera found that extra gear in his players.
For original Nats fans dating back to the inaugural 2005 season, you endured a rebuild from 2006-to-2010 and emerged in 2011 as a possible contender with no sell-off at that trade deadline. The following year in 2012, the Nats won the NL East pennant with 98 wins. The team went over 10 years where you felt you could win a World Series each time. Then the bad times hit leading into July of 2021.
This rebuild just seems like it won’t end. But it will. At some point, those feelings you had a week ago will be for real. That this team had a chance on July 28 says a lot. While you don’t feel it now, you will again.
Yes, there is a lot of trepidation about this Lerner ownership group that hasn’t pumped in the big money to get this payroll back to at least the middle of the pack. Only they know what their plan will be. But if there is good news, they should be able to spend once the new CBA is signed. Will they? We will wait and see, but we estimate the team’s payroll after arbitration raises will be at about $79 million if they keep Zack Littell and knock off $12 million if they don’t.
But Toboni felt the need, as the team fell into an horrific losing streak that reached 6-games yesterday, to sell-off. He had already traded Curtis Mead for a controllable starting pitcher, and then made what most feel was a decent trade of Luis Garcia Jr. to a poor trade for the team’s No. 1 starter, Foster Griffin.
On the Federal Baseball blog, they gave an A- to the Mead trade for LHP Connelly Early, a B/B- to the Garcia trade, and a D for the Foster Griffin trade which appears to be the nicest of the grades we have seen. Federal Baseball didn’t rate the trade of Christian Franklin for Joe Glassey so let’s give that a B because it freed up a 40-man roster spot. Since Early is no longer considered a prospect, the best of the other nine players acquired is Jack Cebert at No. 14 into the Nats system by MLB Pipeline. None of the other prospects made it into the Nats’ Top-25. Three (Ben Grable, Josh Hartle, Yovanny Cruz) got bunched from No. 26 to No. 30.
The major flaw in these rankings is that MLB Pipeline has not seeded in the 2026 draft picks for some reason. Surely once you seed in those draft picks like Baseball America did with Chris Hacopian, Chase Brunson, Cooper Harris, Luke Williams, and Daniel Cuvet, only Cebert and possibly Ben Grable will remain in the Nats Top-30 from these trade acquisitions. In fact, none of the four players from the Griffin trade will stay in the Nats Top-30.
Interesting point that Nats’ VP of Player Acquisitions, Justin Horowitz, drafted lefty Josh Hartle when Horowitz was with Pittsburgh. Hartle was traded to the Cleveland Guardians then included in the Griffin trade. Before the draft picks are seeded, Hartle is ranked No. 29 in the Nats’ Top-30 with MLB Pipeline.
So while the Nats suffered their 28ᵗʰ blown save last night, two terrible baserunning mistakes by Jorbit Vivas and Nasim Nunez, all en route to their 6ᵗʰ consecutive loss in this poorly timed losing streak, and add insult to injury as the team’s best player, James Wood, injured his left oblique and was removed from the game. The injury could possibly result in Wood being out for the remainder of the season.
And while the Nats were in sell-off mode, Toboni did not pull the trigger and trade the team’s second best player, CJ Abrams even though sources told us that he was in high-demand.
There you have it, one of the worst weeks in Washington Nationals history. A week ago the Nats were within 1-game of a Wild Card berth and in 3ʳᵈ place. Today, the team is in 4ᵗʰ place and spiraling. And Butera’s emotions running high, earned him his first ejection of his career last night. We are all feeling it.
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